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Newbie print question

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Mon, 05/16/2005 - 13:14
Kreitler
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Joined: 12/31/1969

I'm having problems getting some prototype cards to print correctly. My original artwork is greyscale, 300 dpi. I'm printing on a cheapy Epson Stylus inkjet.

Here's the problem: the cards have grid lines on them. All the "eas/west" grid lines "zig-zag". They appear straight on my paint program and in the print preview, but when they print, they do this:

**********....................************.....................************
....................**********........................**********

(please pretend that the periods are white space -- only the asterisks matter.)

Has anyone run across this before, and if so, do you know how to fix the problem?

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Mon, 05/16/2005 - 13:24
#1
phpbbadmin
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Joined: 04/23/2013
Newbie print question

What program are you printing from? If you're trying to print from word, and you're actually using spaces (and possibly even tabs) to make the lines, then therein lies your problem. You need to use a table or some other formatting feature to format those lines. The way fonts get converted from PC to printer is probably the culprit. Your best bet would be to use a graphics layout program (publisher, freehand, In Design, pagemaker, etc) to make sure the on screen image looks like what you'll get when you print. You may even have better results with excel.

Good luck!
-Darke

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Mon, 05/16/2005 - 13:38
#2
Kreitler
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Newbie print question

Darkehorse wrote:
What program are you printing from?

Thanks for the reply, Darkehorse.

The original art is in PaintShopPro 8. I'm not using text -- everything is raster graphics. My example above was just an attempt to describe my problem using ASCII art. Bad choice on my part!

I tried printing the art both directly from PaintShopPro and from Publisher (where I originally laid out my card sheets). In both cases, I got the zig-zags.

Here's more strangeness: imagine you have two lines crossing at 90 degrees (forming a large "plus" sign). If I print this in portrait mode, the vertical line is crooked. If I print it out in landscape mode (so that it's rotated by 90 degrees relative to the first printing), the vertical line is crooked -- meaning that the original art seems OK. It almost seems like my printer is screwed up along one direction...

K.

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Mon, 05/16/2005 - 14:11
#3
FastLearner
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Newbie print question

Sounds like your inkjet is trying to render the edges of the lines smoothly and is using an ugly algorithm to do it, turning the dots on and off in a very chunky pattern that is noticeable.

i suggest changing the print quality (either way, higher or lower) just to see if the situation changes. There may be some special settings on image quality that you can change (like unchecking "Use Epson Super-Cool Print Mode" or something) that will improve it.

-- Matthew

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Mon, 05/16/2005 - 14:12
#4
Brykovian
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Joined: 07/21/2008
Newbie print question

Does your printer have the ability to run alignment tests? Some have an "advanced" tab within their properties that will print out test patterns and allow you to have the computer adjust the driver to adjust things properly.

-Bryk

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Mon, 05/16/2005 - 17:10
#5
FastLearner
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Newbie print question

Ooh, good point.

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Mon, 05/16/2005 - 19:43
#6
Kreitler
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Newbie print question

Brykovian wrote:
Does your printer have the ability to run alignment tests? Some have an "advanced" tab within their properties that will print out test patterns and allow you to have the computer adjust the driver to adjust things properly.

-Bryk

Ahh...that was it! Thanks to you all for your help. Can't wait to see how the cards look with the "Earth tremor" special effects...

K.

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